A 62-year-old man from northern Sweden faces a date in court after trying to eat his accounts when his home was raided by police, Västerbottens Kuriren reports.

Having forced the man to stop chewing his books, police conducted a search of the house and found large quantities of gold as well as almost 800,000 kronor ($120,000) in cash.

In 2005 and 2006, the suspect placed a number of ads in local newspapers offering goods for sale at attractive prices. But despite an obvious entrepreneurial streak, he had failed to declare an income for several years.

As tax authorities became increasingly suspicious, police began tracing the suspect's movements, watching as he delivered goods all over the Norrland region.

Eventually a decision was taken to raid the house in a village near Umeå where the suspect was thought to be living with his ex-wife.

Despite opening the door in his dressing gown, the 62-year-old denied living there.

But seeing that the officers meant business, he grabbed a notepad in which he kept track of his transactions and began stuffing pages into his mouth.

Fending off an advancing police officer, he continued chewing for all he was worth. Eventually police saw little option but to wrestle the suspect to the ground and place him in handcuffs.

Filled with a sense of impending doom, the suspect's ex-wife made a dart for the door with a bag that she said contained her jewelry. On closer inspection, police instead found 340,000 kronor in cash.

A search of the house brought the cash total up to 797,000 kronor.

Police also found a number of objects made of 18 carat gold as well as various other unsold products.

Though partially chewed, most of the accounts were salvageable and will be used as evidence against the salesman.

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